Shiva - The Focal Point of Everything (First Instalment)

I have said repeatedly that Shiva’s jurisdiction was unlimited; in fact, everything relating to Shiva was ubiquitous. He did not leave any sphere of the human life of those days untouched.

One’s life is determined on the basis of a few pulsations, and these pulsations depend on a specific number of inhalations and exhalations. The number of such inhalations and exhalations – on average, from twenty-one thousand to twenty-five thousand per day – varies from person to person. The process of breathing has a great influence on the human mind and self, or soul.

Suppose a person is running: his or her breathing immediately becomes heavy. In that condition he or she cannot think properly; the sensory organs such as the tongue, nose, etc., cannot function properly, and as a result one’s perception is impaired. Actions are performed during the period of expansion, and perception occurs during the period of contraction. In the state of motion the period of contraction becomes too short to allow any clear perception.

Moreover, the process of breathing, depending upon whether the breath is flowing through the right nostril or the left nostril or both nostrils, influences people in various ways. It was Shiva who determined what kind of activity should be performed, depending on which nostril the breath was flowing through, and depending on whether the id́á or piuṋgalá or suśumná(1)channel was active. He set down specific rules and regulations as to when one should undertake physical, psychic or spiritual activities. He further instructed when and in what circumstances one should do ásanas, práńáyáma, dhárańá, dhyána, etc. This science, which Shiva invented and developed, was known as svara shástra or svarodaya [science of breath control]. Prior to Him, the world was not aware of this science. Shiva also gave clear instructions how this science could be applied by people in the practical field of action. In fact, this svara shástra did help the people later to solve many problems in their mundane as well as spiritual lives. When doing a heavy job while breathing normally, a person might have serious difficulties – perhaps one’s limbs might be broken – but in a state of baddha kumbhaka, or púrńa kumbhaka [with the lungs full], one can easily do the same work. While doing some over-strenuous activity in a state of shúnya kumbhaka [with the lungs empty] one might even die.

Suppose you are climbing to a high place or lifting a very heavy load. If you do not follow the system of breathing while lifting the load, your hands may become painful or your bones dislocated. If you do the same work in a state of shúnya kumbhaka, you will have great difficulty – you may even collapse. If, on the contrary, you perform any strenuous activity in púrńa kumbhaka, taking a deep breath, you can easily do it. All this comes within the scope of that svaravijiṋána. You might have read in the Rámáyańa that Hanuman, by taking a deep breath, made his body swell and lifted a whole mountain. Although it is a mythological story, it refers to the science of svaravijiṋána.

Now, if people dance according to the prescribed rules of svaravijiṋána, in harmony with proper chanda and proper mudrá, the dance not only becomes enjoyable to others and to the dancers themselves, it also becomes quite a good exercise. And if at the same time that dance equally influences each and every gland, then those glands secrete the proper amount of hormones, which brings nourishment not only to the body, but also to the mind and the átman [the self, or soul]. Both males and females have a large number of glands in their bodies; males have a slightly larger number. All these glands need regular and proper exercise. Food alone is not enough; people need a special kind of exercise. The systematic and rhythmic dances invented by Shiva constitute those useful exercises. Now, all dances do not equally exercise all glands, and there are some glands which are not at all influenced by dances. In the absence of the proper exercise of those glands, people lose many capacities at an early age – especially the capacities of deep thinking and of sustained recollection. The mind has two main qualities – thinking and recollection. Both these qualities deteriorate in the absence of exercise of those glands, and there is no process for restoring them. Considering all this – considering the location of the glands, and the effect of chandas and mudrás – Shiva invented a unique and perfect dance: táńd́ava. As long as a dancer remains above the ground, he derives much benefit; when he touches the ground, then those benefits are assimilated by the body. That is why in táńd́ava there is much jumping, because jumping requires the practitioner to remain off the ground for a fairly long period of time.

The word tańd́u in Sanskrit means “jumping”, so táńd́ava (tańd́u + suffix śńa) means a kind of dance where jumping is a dominant feature. When paddy is husked by a wooden husking machine, the rice grains jump about, and that is why rice is called tańd́ula in Sanskrit. Uncooked rice is tańd́ula, and cooked rice is odana. (One whose rice is pure, that is, one who earns his bread by honest means, is called shuddhodana. Buddha’s father’s name was Shuddhodana.)

Anyway, it was Shiva who first introduced the táńd́ava dance. This was a unique invention which no one had ever thought of in the past; nor is it likely that anyone will find a substitute for this dance in the future. This táńd́ava dance, as I said a little earlier, was invented by the harmonious adjustment between chanda, mudrá and the glands. This dance is not only beneficial for the body, it also develops the mind and leads to spiritual elevation.

Shiva was not content with the mere invention of táńd́ava. In collaboration with His wife, Párvatii, He also invented various other types of dance and popularized them widely throughout the society. In the pre-Shiva days, dance meant simply a random movement of the limbs; but in Shiva’s time it was elevated to a systematic practice.

So you can imagine in how many ways Shiva promoted human welfare!

Since the advent of living beings on this earth, medicines have been used. Dogs, cats, snakes, mongooses – all animals, in fact all beings – need some kind of medicine in various conditions. When wild animals become sick, they rub their bodies against certain trees and plants to cure their ailments. This shows that all living beings are more or less acquainted with some types of medicine. Before Shiva, áyurveda [the Vedic school of medicine], was known to the people. As I have already said, there were six branches of knowledge related to the Vedas – chanda, kalpa, nirukta, vyákarańa, jyotiśa and áyurveda or dhanurveda. This proves that áyurveda was also in existence in India before Shiva’s time. But it had not developed as a systematic school of medicine. It was simply a collection of substances whose medicinal value was discovered accidentally. These substances, called muśt́iyoga in Sanskrit, and t́ot́ká in Bengali, definitely have great medicinal value, but it was necessary to systematize them. This muśt́iyoga, as an áyurvaedik school of medicine, was very popular in the ancient Vedic period, but it did not become a systematic science, a formal branch of medicine, in India until the days of Shiva. Shiva provided it with a definite form, and it became popularly known as vaedyak shástra [Tantra-oriented medicine]. You should note that I am not using the term áyurveda in the sense of vaedyak shástra.

It is necessary now to say something about the history of the social life of ancient India. Regarding certain important items of medical science, such as dissection, surgical operations and stitching, the Vedic school of medicine, áyurveda, did not make much progress. Later on, a group of Brahmans came to India from Sacdonia in Central Asia, the present Tashkent (Sákadviip or Sákaldviip in Sanskrit). Those Brahmans introduced the processes of surgical operation and stitching, and spread them among the Indians to some extent. But there is no evidence that the Sacdonians also knew the practice of dissection. One may argue against this, but it will be futile, for there is no conclusive evidence. Since the Sacdonians had refused to embrace Islam, they had to leave their homes and migrate to western India by sea. Along with them they brought two other things from overseas – cloves and palmistry. There are three Sanskrit synonyms for “clove” – lavauṋga, devakusuma and várisambhava: várisambhava means “that which comes from the other side of the ocean”. The second thing they brought with them was palmistry, which was part of astrology. This science of palmistry was not known in India either: the Sacdonians brought it with them from overseas. So its Sanskrit name is sámudrik vidyá, that is, “knowledge brought from overseas”.

After their arrival in India these Sacdonian Brahmans brought about some real improvement in the Indian áyurveda. All these things took place long after Shiva, about six thousand years after Shiva was born. But the vaedyak shástra which Shiva had invented already included dissection, surgical operations, stitching, etc.